The last paragraph of this article said:

"And this is Santa Cruz: In the crowd on the City Hall lawn, there were others with their own agenda. They openly rolled joints and huffed away, not sick at all, but getting high. And there wasn’t a DEA agent in sight."

"They openly rolled joints"??? Perhaps they did. but "openly" would have meant using other smoking apparatus also, like glass pipes and bongs, which ISN'T mentioned by the writer.

Maybe these people were rolling their own tabacco ? This is common.

Also, DEA agents WOULDN'T necessarily be "in sight", they could be undercover, in which case these alleged casual users, at this city hall event probably would be concerned, don't you think ?

That last paragraph was bad journalism.